This time, the transfer of troops was still the same as before, with Kirillov and I leading with the troops, while Vitkov stayed behind to deal with the aftermath.

Not far from the city, I asked the driver to drive the car to the foot of a hill and walked with Kirillov to the top of the hill to overlook the troops marching on the road below.

On the rudimentary road, long convoys of covered trucks laden with infantry and all kinds of military supplies were rocking and rumbling along the main road.

With the help of the bright moonlight, I raised my binoculars and looked around, then put down my binoculars and said to Kirillov: "Comrade commissar, although the temperature is still very low, the surrounding fields are already half-thawed. In this way, if the German armored forces wanted to attack us, they would have to go through this road. As long as the road was destroyed and minefields were laid, the purpose of delaying the German advance could be achieved. ”

Kirillov nodded approvingly at my statement, and then added: "Lida, the method you said, I believe that Chief of Staff Vitkov can also think of it." It's too cold at the top of this mountain, so let's keep going. ”

I had just nodded, but before I could speak, several trucks with artillery suddenly appeared on the road at the foot of the mountain. Seeing this scene, Kirillov pointed to the bottom of the mountain and asked curiously: "Didn't our artillery blow up all the artillery when they withdrew from Zaporosh, and where did these guns come from?" ”

I turned my head to look at the shape of the guns that were dragging behind the car, and then said disapprovingly, "These are probably anti-tank guns captured in the warehouse." That's fine, with these anti-tank guns. When dealing with the armored forces of the German army. We can also reduce some unnecessary casualties. ”

When our jeep overtook one truck after another. As we approached the front of the convoy, a loud motor roar was heard in front of me. In the midst of the growing noise, Kirillov said to me loudly: "Lida, there must be Major Perstian's tank battalion ahead, and they have made a lot of noise." ”

I turned my head to look out the window, and saw six tanks, apparently of German size, crawling forward in a long line, waddling heavily. Many of the soldiers who had wrapped themselves tightly sat on the bodies of the tanks, covering their faces with their gloved left hands to defend themselves against the cold wind, and rested their mud-covered felt boots on the armor plates. Their right hands clenched the weapons in their hands, and they watched the movement in all directions with wary eyes.

Our jeep overtook the tank detachment and drove on, followed only by three trucks full of soldiers of the guard company.

Seeing that it was only a few kilometers from the outskirts of Kirovgrad, the driver who had been concentrating on driving. Suddenly, he sat up straight from his seat and wiped the fog from the windshield with his gloves. At the same time, he shouted in surprise: "Hell, what is that?" Where did these people come from? ”

"Comrade driver, what do you see?" Upon seeing this reaction of the driver, Kirillov immediately asked alertly, and at the same time reached out and touched his waist.

"On the left, Comrade Commissar." The driver turned to us and shouted, "On the hillside on the left side of the road, there's a group of people, a group of women, hell, I don't know where they came from." ”

I hurriedly looked to the left, and sure enough, I saw a group of women on a small hillside not far from the side of the road. They waved at us and shouted something.

"Comrade driver, drive the car over." Although I couldn't see who the other party was because of the bad light, I decisively gave the order to the driver.

The driver slowed down, turned his head and said hesitantly: "Comrade commander, we don't know what the origin of those people is, will it be dangerous to drive over like this?" ”

"Obey orders, comrade driver." Seeing that the driver was a little timid, Kirillov said a little unceremoniously: "Since Comrade Commander asked you to drive over, let's drive over." If they were enemies, they would have fired at us a long time ago, so why wait until now? ”

The driver didn't dare to say anything more, so he drove to the left and found a place to stop at the bottom of the mountain. Here I could clearly see the group of women on the hillside, their hands pressed to their chests and their headscarves waved. When they saw our car stop, they immediately rushed down the hillside and surrounded our car. And Yushchenko, who was following closely, was afraid that something would happen, so he hurriedly took a group of guards and soldiers who had just gotten out of the car and came over to surround the group of women again.

One of them, a stocky middle-aged woman, was shouting at us outside. Although she was not speaking in Russian, I was surprisingly understood, and it turned out that she was speaking Ukrainian: "Comrades, please, help us." ”

Seeing that there was no excesses on our side, another tall woman without a headscarf kept repeating the same sentence: "Comrades, comrades, comrades......"

I pushed the car door and stepped out of the car, and was immediately surrounded by them. A feverish joy burned with fire on their emaciated, haggard faces, and their eyes were red and swollen with tears. A few of the women who grabbed my arms even broke down and wept bitterly. Seeing the excitement of each of them, I turned my head to look at Kirillov, who had gotten out of the car from the other side of the car, spread my hands to him, shrugged my shoulders, and signaled that in the current situation, it was difficult to ask who they were, why they were here, and why they were stopping our car.

Out of an abundance of caution, Yushchenko squeezed around me and tried to drive the women away. As soon as he squeezed in, the women who had not been able to catch me shifted their focus and surrounded him, stroking his metal cuirass, the military cap on his head, and the assault rifle he carried on his chest.

And a short old lady with black hair grabbed his hand and put it to her lips and kissed it incessantly. At the same time, he said vaguely: "O dear, dear, you are our relative...... After waiting for so long, we finally waited for you to come back, but we waited for you all to come back......"

Yushchenko frowned at the old lady's move, then shook off the other party's hand and said impatiently: "What are you doing, kiss hands!" You know, I'm not a priest, I'm not German, so I don't need to be so enthusiastic. ”

Although Yushchenko's words were a bit excessive, I surprisingly did not take a position, but remained silent. Because in the early days of the Great Patriotic War, the choice of most Ukrainians was to cooperate with the Germans, and even went out into the streets in droves to welcome the Germans who occupied the city. It is only normal for Yushchenko to have such a reaction to what they did at the beginning.

Unexpectedly, the old lady who was wearing tattered clothes and was shivering from the cold, after listening to these words, straightened her body suddenly, raised her head, raised her chin high, and spat at Yushchenko, and said angrily: "Phew, what are you thinking? Do you really think I'm kissing you? I kissed the hand of the great Soviet Red Army, because the Red Army liberated us, because the Red Army defeated the Germans and came back here. And you treat us with such an attitude......"

Then she turned to me and said to me in Russian, with a slight Ukrainian accent: "Comrade commander, we are all farmers of a nearby collective farm, and before dark we caught a few German soldiers who had fled to our village. According to them, Kirovgrad has been recaptured by our troops, so I came here with my comrades to you and wanted to ask to whom to hand over these prisoners? ”

"Captain Yushchenko," after listening to the old lady's words, I did not bother to ask them why they did not send the prisoners to the city, so I immediately ordered Yushchenko: "Send a few men to the village and bring the captured Germans here." ”

"Yes," Yushchenko agreed, turning his head and shouting outside the crowd: "Sergeant Lazarev!" ”

With his shout, someone outside the crowd immediately agreed: "Comrade battalion commander, I'm here, what instructions do you have?" ”

Yushchenko didn't squeeze outside, but shouted directly: "You immediately take a squad and follow the women comrades from the village back to their village, and bring back a few German prisoners who were held there." ”

"Yes!" Sergeant Lazarev outside replied loudly.

At this moment, Kirillov walked around the front of the car, squeezed in front of the black-haired old lady, and said to her amiably: "Hello, old man, I am Kirillov, the military commissar, is there anything I can do for you?" ”

The old lady glanced at Kirillov, who was standing in front of her, and then introduced herself: "Comrade commander, my name is Katerina, and I am a deputy member of the village Soviet in the nearby village of Zofia. With that, she turned to the tall man next to me, who was not covered in a turban, and shouted, "Mira, bring me the list we have prepared." ”

The tall woman named Mira wiped tears from her face, turned her hand and walked to Katerina's side, took out a document from her bosom, and handed it to Katerina.

When Deputy Katerina got the document, she held it in both hands and handed it to Kirillov, who was in front of her. Kirillov took the document in bewilderment, and after a few glances, a look of joy appeared on his face. He turned around and handed the document to me again, and at the same time said, "Lida, look at it, the gifts given to us by the comrades of the farm are not light. (To be continued......)